From her bed, she watches the birds and listens to neighbours busily about their lives. Knitting set aside; hands shake too badly for now. Novel abandoned on the coverlet, for the words won't stay still. Practising patience, she sends out her apology for all the things she cannot do today.

Anybody else like to join in and write their own? Just post it in the comments. All welcome.

My feet remember this path, this land. Something inside me stirs and reaches for memory so old I know it doesn't belong to me; it rouses in my blood and bones, in my soul, speaking to me from the deep past of this sacred place. I have been here before ...

Anybody else like to join in and write their own? Just post it in the comments. All welcome.

I have to apologise for my vignette this week. A huge wave of purple prose crashed over me and swept me away almost entirely. I'll try to claw my way back to something a little less indulgent next week ...

50-Word Vignette #26

Prompt: Pleasure

Pleasure is the wine-kissed spill of terror-song;the bow of straining throat;the mirror-pools of wide-wide eyes.

Pleasure is knowledge blossoming in those eyes;the flutter of the heart that longs to tell;the ash-and-charcoal bitterness it never shall.

Pleasure is the taste of him as I drink my fill.

Anybody else like to join in and write their own? Just post it in the comments. All welcome.

For some reason the central image in my offering this week flared in my mind the moment I read the words of the prompt. I'm still not sure what my character means by what she tells her earth-bound companion. Perhaps one day I'll be wise enough to understand ...

50-Word Vignette #25

Prompt: It's Out There

Clifftop, tip-toe balancing, arms spread like wings.

"Wait," he called. "There's still time — "

She shook her head. "Too late. Can't you see?"

Confusion weighed him to the earth as she tip-tip-toed and tipped from the cliff.

"You never did understand." Her words bore her up and away. "It's out there — "

Anybody else like to join in and write their own? Just post it in the comments. All welcome.

I have five pages of prompt words, and I select each week's using the highly technical method of picking a page at random, shutting my eyes and letting my finger drop onto the list. Then I use whichever word it lands closest to. I confess, this week's prompt word had me stuck for a while. I frowned and pen-tapped, and eventually came up with this:

50-Word Vignette #23

Prompt: Competition

We lined up at the chalk. Racing is character-building, teacher said, good for the health. But in my satchel was a half-complete short story, and the deadline was tomorrow, so I left the chalk and walked away. I had more important characters to build; better competitions to fill my time.

Anybody else like to join in and write their own? Just post it in the comments. All welcome.

I love receiving letters, don't you? Emails are wonderful, but there remains nothing quite like the real thing, especially if they're hand-written on special paper. I love handmade paper with bits of petal and leaf embedded in it.

Following an enlightening discussion I had with cmcmck a couple of weeks back, I realised this week's offering works as a poem, so have formatted it as such.

50-Word Vignette #22

Prompt: Letter

Spice-scented, ribbon-tiedand sealed with a smear of wax.She flicked the letter between her fingers,unopened.

Promises, bargains and lies.No matter how prettily scribed the words,She'd had her fill.

Poison-pen, they might say,but her poisoned ink was far more effectivefor the reply she would send.

Anybody else like to join in and write their own? Just post it in the comments. All welcome.

This week, my vignette is a nod to seaivy's "Dragon Story Wednesdays".

50-Word Vignette #21

Prompt: Treasure

"Me? Breathe fire?" The dragon raised a delicate spiney eyebrow at the young hero before him, all sharp, pointy things and bravado. "Are you completely nuts? Can't you see this isn't a pile of gold I'm sitting on; what's the use in that? My treasure is a mountain of books."

Anybody else like to join in and write their own? Just post it in the comments. All welcome.

I have an aversion to cliche; it brings be out in an unsightly rash. Which is why, when I drew this week's prompt from the pile, I ran screaming in the opposite direction from the obvious, and ended up with this instead.

I know, I'm a little strange ...

Also, look — we're at Vignette Number 20!

50-Word Vignette #20

Prompt: Kissing

The oldest of old say the edge of the world is all frost-fire and mist.

Well, I have travelled there and back in search of my missing soul, and I say there are wrong.

At the edge of the world, I found two trees, willow and birch, bowed together, kissing.

Anybody else like to join in and write their own? Just post it in the comments. All welcome.

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Greek Myths. The maiden huntress, Artemis, was my favourite deity, and I remember the original film of 'Clash of the Titans' with great fondness. My offering this week has nothing to do with Artemis, but there is a link with the film.

50-Word Vignette #18

Prompt: Easy

"If it was easy, we'd all be —"

"Don't say it." Her eyes narrowed as she carried on cutting.

"Accept what you are. There's no denying a goddess' curse."

"Give up? You think I want to kill every man who looks my way?" She hissed as another snake hit the floor.

Anybody else like to join in and write their own? Just post it in the comments. All welcome.

This week's prompt seems to have made me come over all science-fictional. No idea why.

50-Word Vignette #17

Prompt: Treatment

They said everything would be much simpler, afterwards. No more confusion. No more fear. But when I opened my eyes the next morning to find all the colour gone from the world, I begged them, please, restore my full vision: I don't want my life to be black and white.

Anybody else like to join in and write their own? Just post it in the comments. All welcome.

How's this for dedication to a writing cause? I'm even posting a vignette on Boxing Day!

When I was a sprog, I read a lot of classic ghost and horror stories by the likes of Poe and Lovecraft, and I adored the 'Armada Ghost Book' collections (anyone else remember those?). I think they are to blame for a lot of things, specifially for today's vignette.

It seems that footwear is something of a theme for me at the moment, given my recent Doc Marten *fail* and subsequent quest for a new pair on Black Friday. And now I pluck this random prompt:

50-Word Vignette #15

Prompt: My Shoes

The old ones glittered like fire and pinched like an unwished-for life. No longer. Now my shoes are moss and leaf-litter, granite and meadow-grass and ocean-foam. Dancing has never been so easy, and I can run so fast, so long, I have almost outrun the pain of my old life.

Anybody else like to join in and write their own? Just post it in the comments. All welcome.

(And yes, I shall be posting one next Friday, Boxing Day and all, if anyone else is around to join in ...)

It's that time of year for thinking about homemade things of all kinds: homemade Christmas gifts (always the best sort), homemade jams and pickles brought out of the cupboard, homemade mulled wine to warm us on long, chilly nights. So this week's prompt is coincidentally rather seasonal ...

Sometimes, these 50-Word Vignettes arrive in my head in nice, neat packages of more-or-less 50 words exactly, and hence require only a little fiddling to reduce them to the precise 50-word requirement. More rarely, as with this week's, there's more of a story itching to be told, and I have to wrangle it into that 50-word package. For the first time, I found this a frustrating exercise. This vignette really wanted to be longer. However, it's all good practice in being economical with my words. And after all, maybe one day this little tale will have it's chance to become something bigger.

50-Word Vignette #12

Prompt: Thief

I keep it hidden in a jar on the topmost shelf, but I see it in my prematurely white hair; in the knots that marr my aching hands. Sixty days ago, my then-nimble fingers swiped it. A year for each of those days it has stolen from my cursed life.

Anybody else like to join in and write their own? Just post it in the comments. All welcome.